YOUROPE

YOUROPE – The European Festival Association was founded in 1998. It has since evolved into the most important association of European popular music festivals. Today, it represents 123 festivals and associated members from 30 European countries The overall aim of the association is to strengthen and improve the European festival scene as a whole, promoting music and arts, and connecting cultures. By doing so, YOUROPE’s members want to inspire their audiences, cooperate with other cultural players, and contribute to the development of European society. These are YOUROPE ’s objectives: - establishing an international network of music festivals - use of common resources and joint approach to cooperatively strengthen values and the positive impact of our cultural field - facilitation of exchange towards experience, knowledge and information (through meetings, conferences and workshops) - development of the quality of events of our members, within our sector, for our visitors and to the benefit of society - enhancing safe, responsible, fair, future-fit and in all forms sustainable operations of events - building capacity, providing education, sharing best practise - creation of synergies with other networks active in culture policy - representation of the festival scene in matters of mutual and public interest - international dialogue and cultural exchange within and beyond our sector - promotion of cross-border exchange of musical talent - initiation and support of and cooperation in European projects A working group for every topic To fulfil these objectives, YOUROPE has established dedicated working groups and created continuing projects. There are groups dealing with health & safety (YES Group), sustainability & green operations (GO Group) and marketing & communication (EMAC Group). YOUROPE also launched TAKE A STAND, the initiative for social awareness, presents the European Festival Awards (EFA) and hosts the bi-annual European Festival Conference.